CHARGED BY A WILD SEI WHALE 



and after the BoVn had rammed it home, wadded the 

 gun, and inserted the harpoon, we were ready for 

 work. The vessel had been taking a long circle about 

 the whale, which was blowing every few seconds, and 

 now we headed straight for it. 



Like the last one, this animal was pursuing a school 

 of sardines and proved easy to approach. Andersen 

 fired at about fifteen fathoms, getting fast but not 

 killing at once, and a second harpoon was sent crash- 

 ing into the beautiful gray body which before many 

 hours would fill several hundred cans and be sold in 

 the markets at Osaka. The sharks again gathered 

 about the ship when the whale was raised to the sur- 

 face, but this time none was harpooned as we were 

 anxious to start for the station. 



. It was nearly three o'clock when the ship was on 

 her course and fully six before we caught a glimpse 

 of the summit of Kinka-San, still twenty miles away. 

 A light fog had begun to gather, and in the west 

 filmy clouds draped themselves in a mantle of red and 

 gold about the sun. Ere the first stars appeared, the 

 wind freshened again and the clouds had gathered 

 into puffy balls edged with black, which scudded across 

 the sky and settled into a leaden mass on the horizon. 

 It was evident that the good weather had ended and 

 that we were going to run inside just in time to escape 

 a storm. 



